Dear Darlin'
by Lena Criss
Summary: Japril one-shot set at 10x01. After April's love declaration, Jackson has to get sure about his feelings. Can Callie help him?


**Hey folks,  
I had this idea to write this one-shot while I talked with the lovely PJWitter on tumblr, so I tried to publish it as soon as possible. I decided that Callie wasn't aware of Arizona's cheating yet, just for you to know :)  
I hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading!**

**Disclaimer: If Grey's was mine, Japril would have been together since a long time now... ;-)**

* * *

_"You're getting married," Jackson repeated calmly this time. He tried to sound as convincing as possible, even though he wasn't convinced about his own words at all._

_After April swallowed a few times she finally said with a breaking voice:_

_"Unless you can give me a reason not to."_

* * *

Jackson furrowed his eyebrows slightly and exhaled inaudible. April, the girl he cared more about any other one, stood in front of him asking him for a reason not to marry her fiancé. What should he tell her if he wasn't sure about his feelings for her at all? What if he wouldn't give her a reason, would she still marry Matthew? If April would marry him, Jackson would feel terrible for letting her go. But what did he wanted for her?

The plastic surgeon opened his mouth and wanted to say something to her, but instead her pager went off. April quickly checked it and her eyes grew wide in shock.

"Webber...Webber was found electrocuted a-a-and we need to operate on him," April stuttered and ran away.

Jackson throw his head back into the pillow and had problems with process the last ten minutes. So April wanted him and Webber was found electrocuted. Great. But the only thing that spooked around in his head were April's words. Jackson needed to think about what he really felt for her, and it wasn't that easy. Okay, back to the start. The night in San Francisco had been incredible. She had been incredible. And even if he had his doubts at the start, sex with her felt good, it felt so fucking good. And then it turned out that she felt guilty for breaking her promise to Jesus, and Jackson felt automatically guilty, too. He told himself that he was the bad guy, the he had taken advantage of her. When she left for Moline and not waiting for him at Joe's, he had been feeling bad, because she was gone and he had no chance to fix things with her.

The curtains went open and Jackson thought it was April, but it was Callie instead. He felt guilty for being a little happy, that April hadn't appeared between the curtains, he wasn't ready to face her until he knew for sure what he felt for her.

"How's your shoulder, Jackson?" Callie asked and examined his shoulder.

"It has seen worse days," The plastic surgeon answered half-smiling.

"Yeah, what happened?"

"Handball in school, we practiced jump shot and I tripped over my shoelace. It was a shoulder luxation, but I never played handball afterwards, I stuck at football."

"Well this is awkward. Was that April running out of here just a few minutes ago?" Callie laughed and inquired curious.

"Yes, that was she indeed. She got paged because of Webber's surgery, you heard about it?"

"I did, but they didn't need me, so I just wanted to check on you and then go to the gallery."

"Mind if I join you?" Jackson surprisingly asked but then had to remind himself, that April was there. She shouldn't get distracted because of his presence there, so was it a really good idea?

She looked at him with a searching look but eventually said:

"Fine, you can."

"Oh, maybe I shouldn't...I-I-" The plastic surgeon stuttered. He shouldn't go there, seriously.

"Can you please decide?" Callie asked slightly annoyed but then suddenly she thought she was aware of why he didn't want to visit the surgery anymore. Kepner.

"Okay, what wanted April ten minutes ago?"

He looked up to her and answered quiet and guilty:

"She told me, that she want me and not Matthew..."

Callie didn't seem to be that surprised and replied:

"About damn time! But the look on your face tells me that you're not happy and that you feel guilty, right?"

"What do you expect me to be? First she accepts his proposal and now she comes and tells me she loves me?"

Callie sat down on the bed and inquired:

"What did she said exactly?"

"Well, she came in and said that she wanted me and I was surprised by this, so I think I looked pretty taken aback. After that, she started to ramble about how it was when the bus exploded and she thought I had died. I returned that she would get married and after I said it once again she told me "Unless you can give me a reason not to." I mean what should I do? Matthew is her prince charming, I'm the bad choice, remember?"

"Oh, okay, that's tough. But you're definitely not the bad choice, Jackson. You were there when she went through her worst times and so was she there for you. You are able to calm her down like nobody else and I don't think the paramedic is capable of any of those, all right? You two went through so much together and it just stuck you so much more to each other's side. You are the only right choice for April "

Jackson slightly smiled at the nice words from the orthopedic surgeon, but asked doubting:

"That's really sweet from you, but are you sure? I mean before I make myself ridiculous by telling her I feel the same way, just to realize that we're not meant to be?"

Jackson noticed afterwards what he said. He had told Callie, he felt the same way about April. Did those words just popped out of his mouth? And then he remembered this moment when April had asked him for dating advice. Jackson had been feeling weird to tell her how to resolve her whole "virgin, then not-virgin and then virgin again" crap with Matthew, since Jackson still had strong feelings for her. But April had said, that she really liked Matthew and he had told her to tell him who she really was. When she had replied that it could be over when she told Matthew the truth he had advised her to wait a little. His last words "Once he does he's gonna wanna follow you anywhere, trust me" had been not in a single way possible about Matthew, it had been about himself. How much had he had to tell to stay when she turned away to see her paramedic, but he couldn't bring himself up to do this...However...

"Oh, trust me, you love her and she loves you back. You both are ruined...anyone you two date will fail. That is how deep it is," Callie answered smiling and stood up.

The plastic surgeon was taken aback by the words of Callie. She was so fucking right, how could he had been so blind? He was so distracted by her words that he didn't noticed her question if he still wanted to stay in his bed.

"Hey, Avery! Will you come with me and watch the surgery?"

"Yeah, I was just distracted by your -"

"Genius words? Yeah, thank you," Callie chuckled and dropped off his shirt from the chair.

Jackson returned the smile and took his scrub top from Callie and tried to pull it over, but his sling caused problems. Eventually Callie helped him, with taking the sling shortly off so he could put his shirt on. After this, his shoulder started to hurt like a bitch again and he automatically caressed it.

Finally, Callie opened the curtains so they were able to get to the surgery.

"You know, when we realized that you were in the burning bus, April ran towards it to get you out of it, but the paramedic stopped her," Callie informed him when they entered the OR wing.

Jackson exhaled and looked down at her, saying:

"Oh crap. I heard her screaming my name, I guess they even heard her in Europe. That was pretty...intense..."

"Well, you were in this freaking bus which _exploded. _What did you expect her to do? And by the way, never do this again, you understand me? All the three of us nearly died for a second when the bus exploded, okay?"

He nodded and arrived at the gallery. It was full of people, even though they should be with their patients. The first thing he checked was the staff in the OR - April, Hunt, Yang, Shepherd, Dr. Portman, the chief of plastic surgery and Dr. Graham, the chief of general surgery. Luckily, Callie and Jackson found free seats at the sides of a total devastated Bailey, who was caressed by her husband.

"Hey, how's it going?" Callie asked and looked concerned at her friend.

"He-he has -," Bailey started sobbing but then wasn't able to finish because she started to cry again. She rested her head in the crook of Ben's head and he kissed softly her head.

Jackson looked down and had to realize that Webber was about to crash. Sure, he wasn't a truly supporter of his relationship with his mother, but he didn't want to him to die, he was a great a man. And he couldn't let his mother lose another man she loved.

* * *

_5 hours and 2 times that Richard had crashed later..._

April was totally jumpy when they were able to end the surgery successfully. But even though, she stormed out of the OR and tossed her scrub in the trash. She needed to be far away from this OR, it had been a really hard thing to see Dr. Webber crashing three times. Through the windows she was able to see that it still rained and stormed, but she didn't care about it so she took the stairs up to the roof. When she got out and breathed the fresh air she felt immediately better, the tie in her chest loosed itself. April walked in the middle of the roof and soon her whole body was wet and her hair disheveled by the wind. She started to cry, this had been a pretty intense day for her...Slowly she kneeled down and covered her face with her hands sobbing.

Jackson had followed her and he quietly stood in front of the door, her back facing him. The plastic surgeon slowly walked towards her and laid one hand on her shoulder greeting her quiet. She looked surprised up to him, raindrops trailing down his perfect face. Staying down at the ground didn't seem to be the perfect way to face him, so she stood up and looked in his beautiful eyes.

"I haven't been fair to you either, you know," Jackson whispered and pulled her strands behind her ear. She seriously hadn't expected him to say or do this ever, but after a short hesitation she put her hand over his and waited for him to continue.

"Remember when you asked me for dating advice? When I told you "Once he does he's gonna wanna follow you anywhere, trust me", I talked about me, not about him in any way. I wanted you to stay, I didn't wanted you to go and be with him. So...I give you a reason, and trust me, I could give you so much more. I want you to stay. I want you to be with me and I want to be in a relationship with you and nobody else. I love you, because you're crazy, so crazy, nearly weary of life, that you run towards a burning bus, because you know I am in it. And I love you, April Kepner, I freaking do," Jackson admitted and waited for her response.

April had to process the love declaration of Jackson but in the end she started to sob and answered smiling:

"Yes, I know I'm crazy, especially for you."

Jackson laughed and realized how beautiful she looked in the rain. He just couldn't stand any longer not kissing her, so he gave in and kissed her. And how he did. April cupped his face trying not to hurt his shoulder too much and he laid his heal arm around her waist. They didn't care about the loud thunder, all that mattered was them.

After minutes which felt like hours for them, they slowly moved away from each other, but not too far away. The rain kept falling on their heads while they just stared at each other smiling.

"I love you, April."

"I love you, too."

* * *

**I hope you liked my version on how they got together after the storm, so please leave me a review!**

**Thanks again for reading :)**


End file.
